Sporting KC forward Tyler Freeman nominated for 2018 U.S. Soccer Young Male Player of the Year

By Sam Kovzan, 11/28/18, 6:30PM CST

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Sporting Kansas City forward Tyler Freeman is one of five finalists for the 2018 U.S. Soccer Young Male Player of the Year.

U.S. Soccer announced today the nominees for the 2018 Young Male, Young Female and Player of the Year with a Disability awards. Voting for the candidates began today and will close on Dec. 6, with the winner to be announced during the first week of December.

Votes for U.S. Soccer Player of the Year awards are collected from respective U.S. National Team coaches, players who have earned a cap in 2018, members of the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors, U.S. Soccer Athletes’ Council, select media members and former players and administrators.

Freeman, 15, enjoyed a standout year with the U.S. youth national teams, kicking off 2018 with the U-16s at the heralded Torneo delle Nazioni in Gradisca, Italy. His strong performances in the group stage propelled the USA to the tournament semifinals, where Freeman scored the team’s lone goal against Slovenia. The forward then earned his first call to the U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team for a summer trip to Costa Rica, where he scored in his debut appearance against the hosts.

Sporting KC announced the signing of Freeman as the club’s newest Homegrown Player on Oct. 2. The Shawnee, Kansas, native is the second-youngest player in club history and will be officially added to the Sporting KC roster ahead of the 2019 season. He entered the Sporting KC Academy in 2014 at age 11 and has represented his hometown club at the U-12 through U-19 levels.

The 2017-18 Development Academy season saw Freeman score four goals in 19 league appearances for the Sporting KC U-17s, who qualified for the playoffs with a third-place finish in the Frontier Division. He has spent time this season with Sporting KC’s U-17 and U-19 Academy teams.

At age 15, Freeman is the youngest of the five Young Male Player of the Year nominees, joining Mark McKenzie (19), Alex Mendez (18), Ulysses Llanez (17), and Giovanni Reyna (16).